BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G702
Aretas — Aretas
Ἀρέτας (WH, Ἀρ.; Intr., 313), -α, ὁ, Aretas, an Arabian king: 2Co.11:32 (Deiss., BS, 183 f., thinks the proper spelling Ἀρέθας was changed, as Schürer suggests, "by desire to Hellenise a barbaric name by assimilation to ἀρετή").† (AS)
1 tagged verse occurrence · see every occurrence →The father-in-law of Herod Antipas, and king of Arabia Petraea. His daughter returned to him on the occasion of her husband’s entering into an adulterous alliance with Herodias, the wife of Herod-Philip, his half-brother (Luke 3:19, 20; Mark 6:17; Matt. 14:3). This led to a war between Aretas and Herod Antipas. Herod’s army was wholly destroyed (A.D. 36). Aretas, taking advantage of the complications of the times on account of the death of the Emperor Tiberius (A.D. 37), took possession of Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32; comp. Acts 9:25). At this time Paul returned to Damascus from Arabia.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
